Law firm - Dr. Otto Elias

The Dortmund address book from 1930 contains the following entry:  Elias Otto, Dr., Rechtsanwalt u. Notar, F 37352, Hansastr.50, Wohn: Prinz-Friedrich-Karl Str.15. - Otto (Salomon) Elias was born in Dortmund in March 1876. His parents were the merchant Adolph Elias and Julie, née Schwarz. On June 3, 1899, Otto Elias received his doctorate in Erlangen on the subject of „The loan mortgage according to common and civil law“. From 1907, the lawyer worked in a law firm partnership with his brother-in-law Dr. Max Frank. In 1909, Otto Elias married Emma Elias, born on September 6, 1890 in Geldern. The couple had a daughter - K the, born on April 19, 1910. Otto Elias and his brother-in-law Max Frank were exceptionally hard-working and very successful lawyers.On the day of the so-called “Judenboykott” (organized boycott of Jewish businesses, lawyers and doctors) on 1 April 1933, Dr. Otto Elias was charged by the National Socialists with tax evasion and taken into custody for allegedly being a flight risk. On April 10, he was detained in the Dortmund remand prison and transferred to the Dortmund court prison on the same day. He died there three days later, on 13 April 1933. The circumstances of Dr. Elias' death are often described as mysterious. Official documents of the time cite suicide by poison as the cause of death. Today, this is considered impossible. Rather, his death was due to the repression, persecution and imprisonment, and the reprisals against his wife and daughter caused both of them to leave Dortmund. Käthe Elias moved to Münster. Emma Elias first lived in Berlin, then later in Badenweiler. On December 13, 1934, the widow Emma Elias only saw the way to suicide. Käthe Elias, married Richter, last resident in Teltge, survived with her husband and children. In Dortmund, at Hansastraße 50, a stumbling block commemorates the fate of Dr. Otto Elias.